Children's Music & Childhood Songs

[javerylibe]

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic with graduation looming, and I got to wondering: what were some of your favourite songs as a child? Were they typically 'children's songs', or did they tend to be songs geared toward a broader audience of adults?

My dad used to mix us audio cassettes (what are those?) for bedtime and car journeys, and if I remember, they tended to be heavy on music produced without children necessarily in mind. Lots of folk and jazz. James Taylor featured very heavily on them, as did Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. And the Beatles, of course. A few favourites:

• Sweet Baby James (James Taylor) [A clear winner at bed.]
• How Sweet it Is (James Taylor)
• I'll Tell Me Ma (The Clancy Brothers)
• Puff the Magic Dragon (Peter, Paul and Mary)
• Molly Malone (The Dubliners)
• Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)
• The Garden Song (John Denver)
• Big Yellow Taxi (Joan Baez)
• Octopus's Garden (The Beatles)
• Yellow Submarine (The Beatles)
• Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles)
• ABC (The Jackson 5)

And so many others—!

What did you listen to?

[Yorkie]

Funnily enough one of my favourite songs that we sang at school nearly every week was When A Knight Won His Spurs, but I guess that's not quite what you meant?

[javerylibe]

Funnily enough one of my favourite songs that we sang at school nearly every week was When A Knight Won His Spurs, but I guess that's not quite what you meant?

No, that works perfectly. It's a song sung to and for children, yeah? Hymns (and even better, children's hymns), camp songs, and the like are often huge favourites with kids, particularly younger kids.

In fact, I can clearly recall putting my head out the car window and half singing, half screaming 'Chriiiiist haaaas diiiiiied, Chriiiiiist is riseeeeen, Chriiiiist wiiiiill coooooome agaaaaaain!' into the wind.

[Murkskis]

Oh, nostalgia... I can share a clip what I liked when I was about 9 years old Basically it was some music from cartoons.

[youtube][/youtube]

[javerylibe]

Hmm, I wasn't so interested in music then. But I can share a clip- this is what I liked when I was about 9 years old Basically it was some music from cartoons.

[youtube][/youtube]

You might enjoy this, then.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Murkskis]

You might enjoy this, then.

Good guess

[Rebecca (:]

Well, as I'm still a kid now I'd say my favorite songs are Libera songs! (from age 11-14 so far) But from when I was younger.. let's see.. my mom used to play Enya every night for me, for close to 7 years, so I got to know and like all her songs. I also grew up with rock bands such as ACDC, Aerosmith, Guns and Roses, etc... pretty drastic contrast! I also remember really liking Mary Had a Little Lamb - we have many videos of me running around the house and yard singing it!

[TullyBascombe]

If you're talking about songs we liked when we were little kids for me there was: "You Ain't Nuthin But A Hounddog", "A White Sports Coat", "The Ballad of the Battle of New Orleans", "The Ballad of Davy Crockit", "Please Mr, Custer", "Sink the Bismark", "The Peter Gunn Theme". I would listen to those played on my older brother's portable 45 player. Dad had one of the first Hi-Fi systems on the block, a system he built himself from a kit. With his system I listened to Tchaichovsky, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Bernstein.

What I listened tyo when I first began able to buy my own music was Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkle, Cream, the Doors, The Who, Crosby Stills and Nash.

[kay]

Lots's and lots I've always loved music and songs.
However this always sticks in my memory. I was laid up with measles (lying in a dark room listening to Saturday morning kids radio) when the announcer said 'next is for (cant remember who) who asked for the song about the Moody River and Huckleberry Hound' Meant Moon River of course. For those not old enough one line goes, 'waiting round the bend for my huckleberry friend moon river etcetc'.
for me religious songs then Onward Christian Soldiers.

[jesuspeace34]

I remember so many songs when I was younger. I remember listening to the Beach Boys, Paula Abdul, MC Hammer, and so many others.

[maartendas]

Nice topic. My childhood songs were very mixed.
You had the annual Kinderen voor Kinderen album which came out (Dutch for: Children for Children) which was children singing pop songs about their lives to raise money for children in developing countries. No idea what it must sound or look like if you're not familiar with it but here's a classic, about an itchy jumper :

[youtube][/youtube]

Other than that, I grew up with some really cool music. My mom used to play tapes by The Beatles and Nina Simone. I went through an Elvis phase (Jailhouse Rock!), listened a lot to Queen with my brother (A Kind of Magic etc) and had a really serious career as a Michael Jackson fan I then switched to Guns N' Roses and more heavy music as puberty progressed.
Other songs that pop up: Kris Kross - Jump, MC Hammer - U can't Touch This, Extreme - More than Words, Seal - Crazy, Roxette - The Look etc.

[Szepilona]

when I was little I loved to sing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and twinkle twinkle little star. I liked the latter so much that when I was 4 I sang it at my grandparents' 50th anniversary party (it was not part of the original program ) As for GRYMG, I would sing it when I was tired of twinkle which normally happened to be in the middle of summer...

[Jenn]

Oh man that cartoon medley was amazing. I actually rather like that guy's voice and will have to go hunt for something more serious.

I grew up living with my dad who listened primarily to "oldies" 50s and 60s rock. Huuuge into the Beach Boys. My mum, on the other hand listened to rock. At the time that was Guns N Roses, etc. To this day I still enjoy listening to all of the above. I never really did listen to "kids music". I've always been a fan of classical music in general and I'm not sure where that came from since neither of my parents listened to it.

(Totally off topic - I have my firefox dictionary set to English (UK) so it didn't like when I typed "mom" so I giggled and changed it to "mum" since that's what I call her anyway! Yet another sign I was born in the wrong country )

[Nikki178]

When I was a kid we had this VHS tape of all the Michael Jackson videos. I remember watching that when nothing good was on TV. I remember especially liking the "Black or White". Haha.

Then when I was around 8 or 9 years old I started listening to boy bands. Backstreet Boys mostly. Haha. Then when I was about 10 or 11 there was this band that became really popular in the Philippines. Any of the Filipino members of this forum remember the Moffatts? Hahahaha!